The incomparable Mort Drucker will be the inaugural honoree of the “NCS Medal of Honor” at the 69th Annual National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards taking place in Washington D.C. on May 23rd, 2015.

The NCS Medal of Honor is a new award instituted by the NCS board of directors in the fall of 2014, and Drucker was chosen as the very first recipient of the Medal by unanimous vote. The Medal of Honor is a lifetime achievement award bestowed upon a cartoonist “in recognition of a long and distinguished career of continued excellence in cartooning that has set the highest of standards and inspiration.”

Drucker began his career as an assistant on the comic book Debbie Dean, Career Girl in 1947. Quickly moving on as a “retouch” artist for DC comics where he corrected work on many DC titles, he eventually took on the full art duties on DC titles like War Stories and The Adventures of Bob Hope. In the early 1950’s he began freelancing, and his work has appeared in countless books, magazines (including several covers for TIME), movie posters, and advertising. In the mid 80’s he collaborated on a daily comic strip called Benchley, syndicated by the Register and Tribune Syndicate. It was in 1956 when he began working for MAD Magazine that his best known work would begin. In the pages of MAD his gift for caricature and comic storytelling elevated the magazine’s film and television parodies to the status of pop culture icon. His MAD parody work both created and defined the film/TV satire genre, earning him the praise of notable Hollywood actors and directors as well as fellow cartoonists for over half a century. Drucker has won numerous awards from the NCS, including the Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” in 1987.

According to NCS president Tom Richmond, the NCS Medal of Honor is a sister award to the “Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award”, which was instituted in 1994 and is only able to be awarded to an artist who has not previously won the Reuben. Richmond felt excluding some of the greatest cartoonists of all time from being honored for lifetime achievement was a situation that needed addressing.

“Over the years I have fielded many inquiries about why certain artists have not been honored by the Caniff, which was the NCS’s only lifetime achievement award,” Richmond clarified. “I had to explain over and over that the Caniff was created to honor cartoonists who had not won the Reuben, and if an artist had won the Reuben they were ineligible for the Caniff. That seemed to be counter intuitive. How can you eliminate anyone from being honored for a lifetime of excellence in our profession because they once received an award for one year of outstanding work?”

After discussing the issue, the NCS board decided to create a second lifetime achievement award that could be bestowed on past Reuben winners, rather than redefine the by-laws governing eligibility for the Caniff award.

“The Caniff was created to honor cartoonists who had never received the Reuben but who had a long and distinguished career of excellence that deserved recognition,” Richmond explains. “We felt the spirit of that award needed to be kept intact. Creating the Medal of Honor was an obvious solution. Now any cartoonist can be considered for an NCS lifetime achievement award. If they’ve never won the Reuben, they would receive the Caniff. If they have won the Reuben, they would get the Medal of Honor. Both are NCS Lifetime Achievement awards, and once you are recognized by one you don’t need the other. ”

As for Mort Drucker being the first recipient of the Medal, Richmond said: “That was a very quick nomination and unanimous decision by the board. When every year in their acceptance speeches at the Reubens multiple award winners cite Mort as one of their biggest inspirations, it’s pretty obvious the influence his work has had over the last fifty plus years.”

“He’s a cartoonist’s cartoonists, and the personal hero of many… including myself. Mort is a very deserving and fitting first honoree of this award.”

There was some trepidation about adding yet another award to a long list of NCS awards, but I could not be more pleased that the board approved this. The Reuben is supposed to be awarded for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year”, meaning it honors a cartoonist for exemplary work in the year for which it’s awarded. Why that would exclude anyone from later being honored for an entire lifetime of exemplary work never made much sense to me. That said, I understood why it was important to have an award that honored a cartoonist who never won the Reuben, but perhaps deserved to at some point, and guaranteed to honor someone the NCS had not greatly honored before. As that was the spirit in which the Caniff award was created I didn’t think it right to change that either. A second, and equal, lifetime achievement award was an easy way to fix that problem. The NCS Medal of Honor is different in terms of form and presentation from the Caniff, but the same in terms of honoring someone for a lifetime of excellence. I am also pleased Mort will be the first recipient. His career and legacy is among the very highest in the history of cartooning. A worthy award to a very worthy artist.

Members of the National Cartoonists Society will be receiving the official brochure for the 2015 Reuben Award Weekend in their mailboxes in the next week or so. My cover art above. With it goes the announcements of the speaker lineup and special award winners:

Mort Drucker- First recipient of the “NCS Medal of Honor”; Speaker

Jeff Keane- Recipient of the NCS “Silver T-Square” for outstanding dedication to the Society

The NCS Foundation has really been firing on all cylinders lately, starting several initiatives that are going to be terrific resources fro pro an aspiring cartoonists alike. They and the NCS just announced one of those new initiatives today, the free digital magazine, The National Cartoonist!:

The NCS is delighted to announce the launch of our new digital magazine, The National Cartoonist! We’re really excited about this new publication and hope you will be, too!

Published by the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, it is a free magazine celebrating the best in cartooning, past and present, with extensive interviews, in-depth features and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the world of cartooning and comics, as well as beautiful reproductions of rare and, in many cases, previously unseen original art from some of our greatest luminaries! We hope it is a publication that will be enjoyed by all cartooning fans, from the casual reader to the seasoned professional.

To celebrate the launch we are giving away thousands of print copies of the debut issue of The National Cartoonist this coming weekend at San Diego Comic-Con. It’s a souvenir that collectors will want to treasure, so if you are attending SDCC, make sure to stop by The National Cartoonists Society booth, #1307, and grab a copy!

Holy 50/50 cotton polyester blend, Batman! This year’s official NCS Comic-Con T-shirt is in honor of the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of the Caped Crusader! With artwork by Bill Amend, Sergio Aragonés, Jim Borgman, Jack Davis (!!), Jeff Keane, Rick Kirkman, Patrick McDonnell, Bill Morrison, Mike Peters, myself, Stan Sakai, Jerry Scott and Garry Trudeau, this is going to be a hot seller! The NCS will have them in both white and yellow, with a long sleeve option that has the illustrations also going down each sleeve! Visit the NCS booth #1307 at the San Diego Comic-Con and get this one before they are sold out!

… and all you blog readers thought my Adam West Batman sketch from the last week or two ago was for a Batman print I was doing! Incidentally, here’s a close up of my contribution:

This weekend is the big National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award Weekend in San Diego, where between 200-300 cartoonists will get together and eat, drink, be merry, and honor their fellow cartoonists with various awards. This year, we’ll be honoring some other folks as well… those that have served our country in the military.

Those who follow this blog will know I have been privileged to have been a part of several USO cartoonist tours to visit both wounded warriors and serving active military personnel in places like Germany, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and other locations both in and out of war zones. Our groups meet and draw for the troops, trying to bring some smiles to some folks who could use them. The NCS has been very active in supporting our soldiers over the years, dating back to the very beginning of the organization in World War II.

This weekend the NCS will be spending our Sunday doing a little domestic-side troop support. Thanks to sponsorship from the USO, IDW Publishing and members Micheal Rameriez and Jeff Keane (both of whom have been on several of those fore mentioned tours), we will be doing several events with U.S. military service men and women.

Naval Medical Center Visit- About 70 cartoonists will get bussed up to the Balboa area to visit the naval hospital there to draw for wounded warriors, staff and their families. This will be very similar to what we do on the USO tours, especially the ones we take to places like the Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany, and Walter Reed, Bathesda Naval Hopsital or Brooke Medical Center here in the states. Many of the cartoonists will set up in a large commons area near the dining facilities, and others will be formed into small groups to visit patients who are not ambulatory.

USS Midway Museum Event- From 1:00 pm to 4:00 over 100 cartoonists will be set up and drawing on the aircraft carrier/museum the USS Midway in support of Legacy Week, a Memorial Day Weekend celebration honoring those who serve and have severed our country. Sketches and autographs are free but donations are encouraged in support of a charity TBA. This is open to the public and is our annual National Cartoonist Society Foundation outreach event, so come by and see us!

NCS Salutes the Troops Reception- That evening our traditional Sunday farewell gala will be on the deck of the USS Midway, where we will host a number of wounded warriors and their families, folks from the USO and enjoy the music of the DeLuz Band featuring Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist and terrific musician Michael Ramirez.

I’m looking forward to the entire weekend, but Sunday is going to be particularly special.

NCS membership nomination voting has been tabulated, and the nominees for the 2013 Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” are:

Wiley Miller

Stephan Pastis

Hilary Price

Mark Tatulli

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Wiley Miller is the creator of Non Sequitur, a daily comic strip syndicated by Universal UClick. Started in 1992, Non Sequitur has been honored with four National Cartoonists Society Divisional Awards, including Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 1992, and Best Newspaper Panel in 1995, 1996 and 1998. It was the first comic strip to win in its first year of syndication and the only title to ever win both the best comic strip and best comic panel categories. Wiley also worked as an editorial cartoonist for newspapers including the San Fransisco Examiner. This is Wiley’s first nomination for the Reuben award. You can visit Non Sequitur online here.

Stephan Pastis is the creator of the daily comic strip Pearls Before Swine, syndicated by Universal Uclick. Stephan practiced law in the San Fransisco Bay area before following his love of cartooning and eventually seeing syndication with Pearls, which was launched in newspapers beginning December 31, 2001. The National Cartoonists Society awarded Pearls Before Swine the Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2003 and in 2006. Stephan is also the author of the children’s book series Timmy Failure. Stephan lives in northern California with his wife Staci and their two children. This is his sixth nomination for the Reuben award. Visit Stephan’s blog and the Pearls Before Swine website.

Hilary Price is the creator of Rhymes With Orange, a daily newspaper comic strip syndicated by King Features Syndicate. Created in 1995, Rhymes With Orange has thrice won the NCS Best Newspaper Panel Division (2007, 2009 and 2012). Her work has also appeared in Parade Magazine, The Funny Times, People and Glamour. When she began drawing Rhymes With Orange, she was the youngest woman to ever have a syndicated strip. Hilary draws the strip in an old toothbrush factory that has since been converted to studio space for artists. She lives in western Massachusetts. This is Hilary’s first nomination for the Reuben award. You can visit Rhymes With Orange online here.

Mark Tatulli is the creator of Heart of the City and Lio, both daily newspaper comic strip syndicated by Universal Uclick. Heart of the City debuted in 1998. Lio, one of the few fully pantomime strips in major syndication, began running in 2006 and earned Mark an NCS divisional award for Best Newspaper Strip in 2008. In addition to his comic strip work, Mark is also an animator and television producer, known for his work on the cable reality television series Trading Spaces and A Wedding Story, and the winner of three Emmy awards. Mark lives and works in New Jersey with his wife Donna ans their three children. This is Mark’s first nomination for the Reuben award. You can visit Heart of the City online here and Lio here.

The official ballots have been issued to all full members of the National Cartoonists Society for voting to determine the winner. Congratulations to the nominees!

The winner of the 2013 “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” will be announced on May 24th at the annual NCS Reuben Awards dinner in San Diego, CA.

Just a quick word on the A.C.E. award. This was an award that used to be given out pretty regularly back in the day. It was awarded to a famous person who wanted to be a cartoonist when they were young but ended up becoming famous for something else. Some past winners include Carol Burnett, Jonathan Winters, Jackie Gleason, Orson Bean, Ginger Rogers, Al Roker, Denis Leary and Morely Safer, among many others. Weird Al wanted to be a writer for MAD Magazine growing up, and for some silly reason became a Grammy award-winning musician instead.

Looks like another fun NCS Reuben Awards, at it all happens Memorial Day weekend in San Diego, CA!

First, a reminder to all that the submissions for consideration for the National Cartoonists Society’s divisional awards are due on Saturday, Feb 15th! Here’s a list of all the divisions, the requirements for eligibility, and where to send the submissions.

I’m pleased to say that the online divisions have been receiving a good number of submissions, which is terrific. Even better, we expanded the Online Comics Committee to include several other very knowledgeable and “plugged in” webcomics folks to help with the process. In addition to our committee members from last year:

Bill Amend- Creator of Foxtrot

David Allan Duncan- Professor of Sequential Art Graduate Coordinator, Savannah College of Art and Design

So what does the Online Comics Committee do? You can read a detailed post about the process, along with the debunking of several misconceptions, here. but this is the short version:

The vet the submissions for eligibility including publication dates, frequency of publication, eligibility for NCS membership and other requirements

They recommend webcomics they feel reflect the best work of the last year, and also meet eligibility requirements

They recommend ways to make this process better next year

The web is so vast and there are so many comics out there that the input and expertise of a group of knowledgeable individuals like those above are an invaluable part of the process. Like all the other NCS divisions, we try and look outside the submitted work for cartooning that represents the best in the industry, not just among NCS members. The Online Comics Committee is very generously giving the NCS their time and expertise to help meet that goal with the online divisions.

Another move with these divisions this year is that, rather than the NCS board doing the jurying, they are being given to local chapters like the other divisions are judged. Overseen by a board advisor, the selection of the nominees and winner will be done by a chapter (which will change each year), with the field having been vetted for eligibility first. That puts the field in front of fresh eyes every year.

For those online comics creators who are still procrastinating on their submissions, you can email them as a PDF to the relevant recipient up until Saturday night… so you still have time!

Comic book super-legend Russ Heath will receive the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement award from the National Cartoonists Society at their annual Reuben Award Weekend this May in San Diego. It is a great honor going to one of the most influential and versatile comic artists of all time… a true giant of our industry. Congratulations, Russ!

The National Cartoonists Society is very pleased to announce that legendary comic book artist Russ Heath will receive The Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual NCS Reuben Awards banquet in San Diego, California on May 24th, 2014.

The award, named forTerry and the Pirates creator and former NCS President and co-founder Milton Caniff, is awarded by unanimous vote of the NCS Board of Directors. It is given for a lifetime of outstanding and accomplished work to a cartoonist who has not previously won the organization’s highest honor, the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Russ Heath may be best known for his stunningly authentic work in DC Comics’ war titles such as G.I. Combat, Our Army at War, and Star Spangled War Stories, but the versatile artist has worked in an amazingly wide range of genres over the past seven decades.

Heath began his career in comics at age sixteen when he inked a story entitled Hammerhead Hawley for the April 1944 issue of Captain Aero Comics. In 1946 he joined Timely Comics (now known as Marvel), mostly illustrating western characters such as “Two-Gun Kid” and “Kid Colt.”

As the tastes of comic book readers changed, so did Heath’s assignments. Throughout the 1950’s he continued to draw westerns, but also added Horror (Strange Tales), War (Frontline Combat) Super Hero (The Human Torch), Humor (MAD), Science Fiction (Unknown Worlds), Crime (Justice), and even Romance to his repertoire.

In the early 1960’s Heath’s work began appearing in several of DC Comics’ war and adventure books. While at DC he co-created two popular features, The “Haunted Tank,” and “Sea Devils,”both with writer-editor Robert Kanigher. In 1962, artist Roy Lichtenstein appropriated one of Heath’s panels from All American Men of War that depicted a fighter jet exploding. It became the iconic pop art painting, Blam.

Russ Heath also spent time in the swingin’ ‘60’s working with Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder on Playboy’s Little Annie Fanny strip. He even took up residence at the famous Chicago Playboy Mansion in order to help meet a tight deadline on one installment. He then stayed for a number of months after the job was finished until somebody noticed he didn’t belong there any more and kicked him out.

Comic book readers of the 1960’s and 1970’s should be very familiar with two Russ Heath drawings that graced the back covers of hundreds of comic titles for many years. The elaborate illustrations depicted Roman and Revolutionary War battle scenes to entice kids to stuff their allowance money into envelopes and send away for plastic toy soldier sets. Though Heath was only paid $50 for the two drawings, they were probably seen by more readers than any of his regular comic book work.

In addition to working in comics, Heath has lent his talents to the animation industry, providing layouts and design for such memorable shows as Godzilla, The Tarzan/Lone Ranger/Zorro Adventure Hour, Robocop, Pryde of the X-Men, and G.I. Joe.

Heath also worked in the realm of syndicated newspaper strips in the early 1980’s, reviving The Lone Ranger with writer Cary Bates for the New York Times Syndicate.

In recent years Heath has been extremely busy accepting commissions from his legion of fans to recreate some of his greatest comic book covers.

Russ Heath was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded the Sergio Award by the Comic Art Professional Society in 2010.

The National Cartoonists Society is starting it’s annual call for entries for consideration for their NCS Divisional Awards recognizing excellence in professional cartooning. As always, you DO NOT have to be a member of the NCS to have your work considered for a divisional award… all that is required is that the work be eligible as detailed below.

Below you will find a list of the juries which will judge the categories, the jury chair and the address to which you will send your entry. As always, NO EMAIL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED, with the exception of the Online Comics divisions, which allows emailed PDF submissions. Below is a short recap of several rules and guidelines, which govern the awards:

Please remember only recent work can be considered. This means work published between the dates of December 1, 2012 and December 31, 2013. Submitted work must be accompanied by verification of the date of first publication.

Please submit published tear sheets when possible and document when and where the work was published. Online Comics should provide links for verification of first publication date.

If your syndicated cartoon runs in both strip and panel format you can submit to one of those divisions, not both (your choice).

Your submissions must be submitted to their respective locations by February 15th, 2013.

Cartoonists are invited to submit their work (or the work of another professional) no later than February 15th, 2014, for consideration for one or more of the following Division Awards:

NEWSPAPER PANEL CARTOONS- Submit up to 12 samples of 2013 published work to: Darrin Bell, 1923 Scott Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90020 (candorville@gmail.com) Judging will be done by the NCS North Central US Chapter.

MAGAZINE FEATURE/MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION- Submit up to 6 samples of 2013 published work to: Tom Richmond, 3421 E. Burnsville Pkwy., Burnsville, MN 55337 (tom@tomrichmond.com) Judging will be done by the NCS New Jersey Chapter.

BOOK ILLUSTRATION- Send up to 6 samples of 2013 published work to: John Kovaleski, 42 South Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325 (john@kovaleski.com) Judging will be done by the NCS Connecticut Chapter.

EDITORIAL CARTOONS- Submit up to 20 samples of 2013 published work to: John Kovaleski, 42 South Street, Gettysburg, PA 17325 (john@kovaleski.com) Judging will be done by the NCS Upstate New York Chapter.

ADVERTISING and PRODUCT ILLUSTRATION- Submit up to 6 samples of 2013 published and marketed work to: John Hambrock, 7214 7th Avenue, Kenosha, WI 53143. (john@edisonlee.net) Judging will be done by the NCS Washington DC Chapter.

COMIC BOOKS- Submit up to 3 samples of 2013 published work to: Bill Morrison, 786 Twillin Ct., Simi Valley, CA 93065 (roswell2@earthlink.net) Judging will be done by a specialty jury.

Both animation categories are accepting submissions of individual artists’ work for consideration. Submissions may be submitted by the artists themselves, or by the studios or other colleagues on the artists’ behalf. There is no charge for awards submissions.

Production designers, art directors, character designers, layout artists, background painters, character painters, and all other still art creators must submit five to ten samples of their work from a single production for each application. Samples may be physical prints or as JPEG files on a CD-R. If the samples contain work by anyone else, please include a detailed written breakdown of which art is attributed to the applicant.

Animators, storyboard artists, visual effects artists, and anyone else involved in creating moving or continuity art, please submit a reel of your work on a DVD or CD-R. (Storyboards will only be considered in animatic form.) If the samples contain work by anyone else, please include a detailed
written breakdown of which art is attributed to the applicant.

TELEVISION ANIMATION- All entries must be work created for episodes of a television series that aired for the first time during the 2013 calendar year. Submit one or more samples as explained above to: Chad Frye, 518 E. Cypress Ave. #C, Burbank, CA 91501 (chad@chadfrye.com)

FEATURE ANIMATION- All entries must be work created for a fully animated feature length movie released theatrically in the 2013 calendar year. Submit one or more samples as explained above to: David Folkman, NCS Los Angeles Chapter, 6171 W. Century Blvd. #160, Los Angeles, CA 90045 (folkmanart@aol.com)

ON-LINE COMICS DIVISIONS

All Online Comics submissions must adhere to the following:

– Must be web only publication (any syndication in print should submit to proper print division above)
– Must have shown consistent timely publication over the course of the 2013 calendar year (weekly, bi-weekly, multiple times a week, daily, etc.)
– Creator must earn the greater part of their living directly from cartooning/comic art in order to meet the requirement that they be eligible for professional NCS membership

ON-LINE COMICS- SHORT FORM

Additional specific requirements:

Can be strip, single panel, single or partial page format

Must be mainly self-contained gag, story, or narrative in each short comic, even if also part of ongoing narrative